Solo Piano Recital from St. Mary’s Music Associate

Earlier this week The Episcopal Church of St. Mary the Virgin posted the twelfth video in its St. Mary’s Music Notes series, curated by Eric Choate, the church’s Director of Music. The half-hour program was a solo piano performance by Music Associate Maria Perkins, which took place at her home. The program consisted of five selections, all with French titles, based on the general theme of gardens.

The French composers represented on the program were Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Lili Boulanger. There was also a selection by Choate that carried a French title and seems to have been inspired by a trip to France that he took with his new wife, Ellen Leslie. Entitled “Dans un Jardin de Tournesols (in a sunflower garden) the music was presented to her as a first anniversary gift. One can appreciate Choate’s awareness of French influences in creating this composition, but one can also appreciate the techniques through which those influences were transformed into his own original voice. Perkins’ execution left me (and, hopefully, others) looking forward to revisiting this music at some time in the near future.

Marla Perkins explaining “Pagodes” before beginning her performance (screen shot from the video being discussed)

The composer receiving the most attention was Debussy. Perkins played two of the three compositions in his Estampes (prints) collection, “Pagodes” (pagodas) and “Jardins sous la pluie” (gardens in the rain). Sadly, while Perkins discussed the second of these in vivid and informative detail, she never got around to naming the title (or, for that matter, the composer). Nevertheless, these pieces are likely to have been familiar to many listeners. More important is that both movements are products of highly elaborate textures of polyphonic voices, and Perkins allowed those textures to present themselves through meticulous and expressive keyboard work.

The Ravel selection was “Jeux d’eau” (fountains); and the video included images of several fountains, most likely from different European venues. Those images reinforced the descriptive denotational qualities of the music itself, thus guiding the attentive listener through Ravel’s own distinctive approaches to expression. Ravel was clearly aware of Debussy’s talents in denotation through music, but “Jeux d’eau” illustrates the extent which which Ravel developed his own unique qualities.

The least familiar work on the program was Boulanger’s “D’un Jardin Clair.” Perkins translated this as “in a clear garden;” but more appropriate would be that the music served as a connotation of such a garden. Once again, Perkins’ performance was reinforced by garden photographs. As was the case with the other selections on the program, texture was the primary connotative element of the performance. However, because few listeners have encountered Boulanger’s music, the elements of connotation were probably not as easily grasped is they were in the selections by Debussy and Ravel.